History Recap / GameOfThronesS5E7TheGift

Horses are bridled and saddled and weapons, blankets and food are packed as Jon and his expedition prepare to leave '''Castle Black'''. Two things remain: to have Tormund Giantsbane unshackled in plain view, (as various Watchmen scowl), and to give command of Castle Black to Allister Thorne (who tells him that his mission is reckless and insulting to the dead). Samwell meets Jon at the gate to give him a bag of dragonglass knives, and Team Snow is off.

Later, Sam and Gilly sit at what will clearly soon be Aemon's deathbed. The over a hundred-year-old man reminisces in a somewhat senile fashion about Egg (Dany's grandfather) but has a lucid moment where he tells Gilly to get her son south, before it's too late.

Combat breaks out and it's unusually fatal as GladiatorGames goes. Dany is increasingly appalled by the pointless killing and after a few minutes gets up to depart, ignoring Hizdahr's cries of tradition. Jorah sees his queen's distaste for the red when there's no need to spill it and immediately understands the situation. He charges back, puts on a full-face helmet. grabs up his broadsword and rushes out, knocking Yezzan into the dust with an [[OffhandBackhand elbow pop to the temple]] when he tries to stop him. Jorah then goes into beast bear mode and engages in a good bit of the old ultra-violence, but all with BloodlessCarnage to showcase his superior skill to those who rely on edged weapon and to showcase his [[UndyingLoyalty borderline insane chivalry for Dany]]. Who stops to watch the new combatant, intrigued.

Tyrion wants to join him but he's tethered by chains, which in a turn of good fortune, a fellow slave-fighter breaks out of solidarity. Dany seems to be duly pleased with the figure of the masked man as he turns the pit-fighters into whimpering bags of broken bones in place of corpses. After the fighting is done, Jorah reveals himself to the audience as the last man standing. Dany is shaken at seeing him again and after a moment's hesitation tells her subjects to get him out of her sight. Jorah, desperate for a reconciliation between them even as he's being dragged off for another banishment or summary execution, declares that he's brought her a gift.

The High Sparrow then digresses about the Great Sept of Baelor's architecture. He tells Cersei that he does not like the Sept which Baelor the Blessed, (the famously pious Targaryen king) built. He prefers the older Sept which preceded it. This room comes from that period. He points out an altar and tells her that its austere, clean and simple and best of all, anonymous. Nobody knows who built it and ultimately all the finery and refinement and gold is mere vanity. Cersei doesn't quite cotton on as the High Sparrow continues. Once you take away the finery, the gold and all the trappings of luxury, what remains is the real thing. It shall be for all, high and low-born, for the Tyrells... and Cersei Lannister. Her face seems stuck, not understanding what he means. The High Sparrow then tells Cersei that a while back, a certain young man, broken in battle and in spirit, came to him for succor. He unburdened himself of all the sins he had committed. And those sins are shared and exceeded manifold by ''her''.

As if in response (and no doubt pre-planned) Brother Lancel steps into the room, walks to the High Septon's side, and fixes Cersei with a hard stare. Cersei ''[[OhCrap FINALLY]]'' realises just how much trouble she's in and makes to leave, but runs into a tall Septa at the door. When she tries to move past, the Septa prevents her from leaving. When she orders the High Septon to make the Septa let her go, he merely stares coolly at her while several others rush in to seize her. Cersei screams again and again that she's the queen -- but that didn't save Margaery, and it certainly won't save her. She is thrown into a cell and, for all her threats that her face will be the last thing the Septas will see before they die, they calmly slam and lock the door on said snarling face.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: The Masters and slavers at the sight of a dwarf beating his captor with his own chain. Yezzan agrees to buy Tyrion, as he might raise a laugh at the GladiatorGames too. Also note the seller's look, which basically says, "You're getting your ass kicked by a dwarf, I'm not helping you".

* AndThatsTerrible: There's a brief moment of Littlefinger alone surveying the remains of his broken brothel, including staring at the peep hole he used to spy on his clients in the second season and waxing nostalgic about the glories of his establishment to Olenna. You know, the brothel full of sex slaves and poor women who he delivered to nasty clients, all for the right price. Who knew pimps could be so sentimental?

** The High Sparrow intends to strip away all the "finery" of the great houses, and let them be judged for who they truly are.
** There is also a subtle removing of his own mask here; underneath the mask he is still a man of simple conviction and extreme piety, but during his conversation with Olenna, his affable humility diminishes until he all but spells out that he intends to create a situation where "the many stop fearing the few..." and ends with an ImpliedDeathThreat. When he arrests Cersei, his posture, expression and eye contact also become much more openly confrontational, revealing the fanatic zeal that lets the apparently gentle old man command the violent Faith Militant.

** Bronn's assertion that it's his policy to not harm women when it's been clear he'll basically hurt anyone for enough money.

** Soon afterwards is Cersei being likewise imprisoned by the Faith, screaming to be released and shouting that she's the queen, with no effect.

** Cersei refers to Margaerey as "sister."

** For the second episode in a row, a Queen is dragged to a cell [[ThisCannotBe screaming in disbelief]]. Cersei yells "I am the ''queen''!" as she's being arrested by the Faith, just like Margaery before her.

* CarryingTheAntidote: After some good old poisoning and teasing, Tyene is chivalrous enough to give the antidote to Bronn. It's implied just letting him know she ''could'' have killed him was enough for her.

--> '''Stannis:''' I retreated from King's Landing, Ser Davos. If I retreat again, I become "the king who ran". Winter is coming. Those aren't just the Stark words. That's a fact. If we march back to Castle Black. We winter at Castle Black. And who can say how many ''years'' this winter will last? This is the right time and I will risk everything, because if I don't, we've lost. We march to victory or we march to defeat, but we go forward, only forward.

* DispenseWithThePleasantries: Olenna invokes this with Littlefinger when she overrides his attempts to be obsequiously courteous since she doesn't want to hear it, and she knows not a word coming out of his mouth is sincere.

-->'''Olenna''': [[ShutUpHannibal Don't pretend to have any concern for my House, my grandchildren or me!]] [[OpportunisticBastard I should have known you'd return to the capital as soon as things started to go wrong!]]

* ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest: Sam gives Jon a dragonglass dagger when they depart, but hopes Jon won't have to use it.

** Tyene Sand reveals that the blade Bronn was scraped with was covered in poison, which takes time to kick in. She accelerates it by revealing her breasts in order to get Bronn's heart rate up, and as it takes effect, she offers him the antidote if he admits she's the prettiest girl in Westeros. Bronn admits it, and after giving him the cure, Tyene says that Bronn's not that bad looking either.

-->'''Olenna''': You there! Where would I find the High Septon, or High Sparrow, or whatever bloody fool name he's got?!
-->'''High Sparrow''': It's not as good a name as 'Queen of Thorns', I'll admit.
-->'''Olenna''': You should have the decency to stand in the presence of a lady.
-->'''High Sparrow''': ''You'' should have the decency to kneel before the gods.
-->'''Olenna''': Don't spar with me, little fellow!

Back at '''King's Landing''', Petyr Baelish surveys his former Brothel. Its a total mess with pornographic paintings covered in graffiti. Littlefinger finds Olenna Tyrell waiting at the empty establishment. Olenna drops any pretenses and acknowledges their conspiracy to kill Joffrey for the first time on camera. Littlefinger panics but Olenna warns him that he's not going to back off and cover his ass this time by killing her. If anything happens to her, her children or House Tyrell, Littlefinger will go down with them. Littlefinger smoothly tells Olenna that he has a way out.

We're in '''Meereen''' or somewhere outside it. There's a small gladiator tournament, a preview to the reopening of Daznak's Pit. Yezzan tells them that those who win will fight in the Great Arena as champions. Tyrion and Jorah get ready and arm and armour themselves for combat or at least Jorah does. Daenerys and Hizdahr approach a pavilion overlooking the fighting. Dany finds the entire exercise distasteful but Hizdahr states that it's customary for Meereen's ruling castes, or in this case, their new ruler, to tour the lower pits and pay the fighters the honour of her presence. Yezzan on seeing the arrival of the Silver Queen and many nobles quickly moves around and tells his new recruits to salute their benefactress. Inside the dugout, Jorah hears them call: "we fight and die for your glory, O glorious queen!" Realising that Daenerys is in attendance he perks up and goes to the entrance and glimpses her in the stands, his face lighting up like a four year old's on his first recognisable Christmas.

Back at '''King's Landing''', Cersei arrives at the Great Sept of Baelor. She has come to see her daughter-in-law. Margaery is curled in a corner in a dinky dungeon. She is depressed, weak, covered in rags and looks barely recognizable. Cersei arrives to offer commiseration (a.k.a. stealth gloating) to her plight. Margaery refuses all of her outward offers of sympathy. She has done being nice and tells Cersei to leave her alone. Cersei has brought venison for her to eat and continues until Margaery insults her for being a cruel woman. Cersei is about to step out but pushes her luck with one last dig, to which Margaery hurls the venison at her and calls her a "hateful bitch". Cersei leaves but does not even bother to hide her EvilGloating as she walks out of the cells. Cersei proceeds to find her High Septon in a very bare and noticeably older looking room. Cersei discusses the trial and the High Sparrow says that if found guilty, based on the nature of the charges, Loras and Margaery will be made to submit to penance. Cersei asks about the nature of these penances but the Sparrow says it depends on the sin, how guilty they feel and how contrite they are.

As if in response (and no doubt pre-planned) Brother Lancel steps into the room, walks to the High Septon's side and fixes Cersei with a hard stare. Cersei ''[[OhCrap FINALLY]]'' realises just how much trouble she's in and makes to leave, but runs into a tall Septa at the door. When she tries to move past, the Septa prevents her from leaving. When she orders the High Septon to make the Septa let her go, he merely stares coolly at her while several others rush in to seize her. Cersei screams again and again that she's the queen -- but that didn't save Margaery, and it certainly won't save her. She is thrown into a cell and, for all her threats that her face will be the last thing the Septas will see before they die, they calmly slam and lock the door on said snarling face.

** Every. Single. Word. That comes out of Cersei's mouth this episode.
** Bronn's assertion that it's his policy to not harm women, when it's been clear he'll basically hurt anyone for enough money.
** Malko boasting that Jorah killed Khal Drogo in single-combat!

* DeathOrGloryAttack: Stannis intends to march to Winterfell in the cold snow against Roose Bolton even if Davos points out that his army is LosingTheTeamSpirit and suffering desertion. Stannis says he will risk everything. Though, as his conversation with Melisandre reveals, he's not going to cross the MoralEventHorizon and burn Shireen. Hopefully he'll stay that way.

* DispenseWithThePleasantries: Olenna invokes this with Littlefinger when she overrides his attempts to be obsequiously courteous, since she doesn't want to hear it and she knows not a word coming out of his mouth is sincere.

** The Faith Militant is homophobic and their inquest was a kangaroo court, but Margery and Loras ''are'' guilty of the crimes they're being charged with; homosexuality may not be a crime in the 21st century western world, but it is in a medieval society like Westeros, and perjury, even in defense of a loved one, is a serious offense. The Tyrell's defense essentially amounts to "we're rich nobles and the rules shouldn't apply to us", and Lady Olenna threatens to let a city of half a million people starve to see that her grandchildren are exempt from the rules. The Faith being tired of the nobility flaunting the law is understandable, and they show here that they aren't playing favorites, as Cersei can now attest to.

* HomeFieldAdvantage: Ramsay mentions that the blizzard works to his house's advantage, since they are Northmen who are used to fighting in the cold, while Stannis's forces are all southerners or foreign mercenaries.
* HonestAdvisor: Ser Alliser invokes duty and speaks out against Jon's mission, calling it reckless, foolhardy and an insult to all the brothers who have died fighting the wildlings. Jon thanks him for his honesty and carries on.

* KarmicDeath: A rare non-villainous example. Maester Aemon Targaryen is the gentlest and kindest soul in Westeros, and he dies peacefully in his bed from old age. Rest well, Maester Aemon. For now your watch has ended.

** Cersei passionately promises Tommen that's she'd do anything for him, even burn cities to the ground. But she won't free his wife, that's for sure.

* MixAndMatchWeapon: The pitfighter/guard that frees Tyrion wields a slightly curved, single bladed sword with a mace head at the top of the blade to give it added heft on the swing.

* MortonsFork: Stannis has to march to Winterfell, defeat the Boltons to continue his campaign, just when winter is setting in, risking desertion and death by starvation. Or, he can stay in Castle Black and let winter set in completely and stay there for ''years'' by which time everything would have changed.

** Davos mentions that one of the sellsword companies hired to fight for Stannis are the Stormcrows. In the novels the Stormcrows is the free company that Daario belonged to and took over after killing his fellow co-captains, Sallor the Bald and Prendahl na Ghezn.

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: The Night's Watch men pummel Sam until his face is a mess, though they stop once he's been beaten into submission.

** Later, Olenna makes it clear to Littlefinger that he shouldn't even try to out-gambit or dispose of her and her family the way he usually deals with his less savvy partners in crime, or else "they'll never find what left of you."

** The would-be rapists when a snarling direwolf enters the room.

* ThePowerOfLove: When he realises that Daenerys is watching the fight, and about to leave, Jorah enters the fighting pit without waiting his turn, strikes his Master (enough to get you flayed or your hand cut off, as we've seen in previous episodes), and takes on all comers. Even this is not enough, until the arrival of his 'gift'.

* QuantityVsQuality: When Lady Olenna threatens the High Sparrow with the power of Highgarden, the High Sparrow points out the peasants she relies on to harvest her grain are a lot more numerous than her knights.

** Half of everything Tyrion does is this, but insisting that he's a mighty pit fighter in order to stay with Jorah then proving his point by ''beating the crap out of the guy holding his chain'' is a new high point for him this season.

-->'''Olenna''': You there! Where would I find the High Septon, or High Sparrow or whatever bloody fool name he's got?!
-->'''High Sparrow''': It's not as good as name as 'Queen of Thorns', I'll admit.

--> '''Margaery:''' [[GetOut Get out]] [[SuddenlyShouting you hateful bitch!]]

** Theon snaps right back into his Reek persona the moment he leaves Sansa's room. Turns out you can't just sway someone who has been thoroughly tortured, broken and trained for over a year with nothing but compelling arguments.

** For all this wiki likes to talk of Sam's levels in badass, his killing of a white walker and a Thenn were ultimately products of luck. While he has considerable bravery and heart, he's still useless in a straight up fight, a fact that gets driven home and hard in this episode.
* TakingYouWithMe: Olenna Tyrell promises Littlefinger that given they collaborated in killing Joffrey, if House Tyrell falls, Littlefinger will go down with them and if he tries to cover his ass by killing her, her men will ensure he shares the same fate.

** Very ''not'' subtle with Cersei, who demands the High Sparrow order the Septas to let her go, and then starts screaming "I am the ''queen!"'' as she is dragged away to the dungeons under the Great Sept of Baelor.

* YouRemindMeOfX: Aemon notes that Little Sam laughs like his little brother Egg (King Aegon V, Daenerys' grandfather) did when he was a baby.

The conversation turns to Walda's pregnancy. Sansa asks Ramsay what will happen if Walda has a boy. He happily says that in that case he'll have a baby brother. She continues by saying the baby will have the better claim. Ramsay, clearly wanting to be off the issue, says that he was naturalized by the king. Sansa, clearly no longer supplied with fucks to give, pushes further. ''Tommen'' legitimized him and Tommen's a bastard too. Therefore Ramsay's claim is inferior (somehow). He gives her an eye-bulgy DeathGlare before calmly saying that bastards can rise high in the world, like her half-brother Jon Snow, who has recently been elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Sansa is surprised and her eyes light up at this news about her brother -- but Ramsay has an even ''[[NightmareFuelbetter]]'' [[NightmareFuel surprise for her]].

The conversation turns to Walda's pregnancy. Sansa asks Ramsay what will happen if Walda has a boy. He happily says that in that case he'll have a baby brother. She continues by saying the baby will have the better claim. Ramsay, clearly wanting to be off the issue, says that he was naturalized by the king. Sansa, clearly no longer supplied with fucks to give, pushes further. ''Tommen'' legitimized him and Tommen's a bastard too. Therefore Ramsay's claim is inferior (somehow). He gives her an eye-bulgy DeathGlare before calmly saying that bastards can rise high in the world, like her half-brother Jon Snow, who has recently been elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Sansa is surprised and her eyes light up at this news about her brother -- but Ramsay has an even "''better''" [[NightmareFuel surprise for her]].

** The Sand Snakes roll their eyes when Tyene hits on Bronn. Either they're annoyed by her [[FoeYay hitting on an enemy]], or [[HereWeGoAgain they've seen her play the poison game before]].

* BadassBeard: Stannis' stubble has grown into a full regal beard after some time campaigning in the cold North.

* RealityEnsues:
** Theon snaps right back into his Reek persona the moment he leaves Sansa's room. Turns out you can't just sway someone who has been thoroughly tortured, broken and trained for over a year with nothing but compelling arguments.
** Also, Cersei learns the hard way that, eventually, that group of religious fanatics you endorsed will no longer care about your position.
** For all this wiki likes to talk of Sam's levels in badass, his killing of a white walker and a Thenn were ultimately products of luck. While he has considerable bravery and heart, he's still useless in a straight up fight, a fact that gets driven home and hard in this episode.

At '''Castle Black''', Aemon is growing incoherent. As he rambles on about Egg, Gilly tries to get Sam off to bed. Sam refuses to leave; Aemon was always good to him. The latter gets off his FamousLastWords, "Egg... I dreamed... that I was old."

* FamousLastWords: Book readers were thrilled to hear Maester Aemon utter the same final words as his counterpart: "Egg...I dreamed...that I was old."

* WomanInWhite: Dany at the fighting pits. Although she's worn several silvery gowns all this Season, this one is a startlingly bright shade of white. Jorah was in luck that day in more ways than one.